The bad news about girls? Suicide now tops the list.

Largely as a result of improvements in maternal health worldwide, maternal mortality—while still a leading cause of death—is no longer the number one killer of adolescent girls. That’s the good news. The bad news? Suicide now tops the list. Suicide kills more girls between the ages of 15 and 19 than any other cause—more than pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, road injury and diarrhoeal diseases. In every part of the world but Africa, suicide is among the top three killers of girls in this age group. The suicide rate in South and East Asia is particularly shocking; in this region, it is five times higher than in Europe or the Americas.